Silly boy

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Since I haven't been posting too much, I am doing a little catch up so you can see Ben and his silly ways.

I took this one right when I walked into his bedroom in the morning.

He likes to lay on his changing pad like it's a bed.

An action shot

Playing with dad

Pushing his car "mater" around

Staying focused while painting last week.

This is his fake smile that he does when you tell him to smile for a picture.

Ben being himself, adorable.

Our family...

We don't get pictures of the three of us very often. Most of our pictures are of Ben and there are the occasional Ben and Drew pictures but hardly ever do we have a picture of all of us. On Thanksgiving, I made it a point to get some.

Here is my favorite one of the bunch...

Ben playing at the park

Our new house is right next to a small park so it's kind of like having the park in our backyard for Ben. The three of us headed over there this afternoon and I thought you all would enjoy a video for a change.

Ben's First Parade

This afternoon, the three of us headed to downtown Brentwood for the Christmas Parade (a little early in my opinion). The weather was great at the beginning but by the time we left around 5, it was so cold. Ben did great for the hour and a half we were sitting there and really enjoyed watching the parade. He like the music and dancing and of course the decorations. He waved to everyone that went by.

Waiting for the parade to start

Looking up at the birds

Watching everyone walk by

When he heard the police sirens at the beginning of the parade, he

looked over to see where they were coming from

Enjoying the candy canes they were passing out

It was so much fun watching his excitement

Had to put on his vest once it started getting cold

My attempt at a family shot. Not very good but at least we are all in it

He spent almost the whole parade sitting in between mom and

dad. Look at him resting his arm on dad

Baby Jack

We had our 20 week ultrasound this past Monday and got some great views of the little guy. The ultrasound was an anatomy scan to make sure that everything was looking good. They check his brain, heart and every other part of him. He is about 10 inches long and weighs about 14 ounces (Ben was 14 inches and 34 ounces at birth).

Here is a profile shot...

He was making a fist except for his pointer finger which was sticking up

Here he has his hand up to his face

His little foot

We are past the half way point and we will be welcoming baby Jack within the next 126 days. It seems like a long ways to go but it will be here quickly. I know there are a lot of people anxious to meet him.

Halloween... also a little late

We had a pretty low-key Halloween this year. Growing up, it was always my least favorite holiday so it is hard for me to get into it now. Even though I was never a fan of trick or treating and pumpkins, I don't want Ben to miss out on anything.

We decorated a pirate pumpkin...

Ben was working very hard on sticking the ears in...

Finished product... Mr. Pirate Pumpkin next to Mr Potato Head...

He enjoyed taking them apart also...

I waited too long to buy him a costume so he ended up wearing his monkey costume from last year. It still fit pretty well but of course, he wouldn't leave the head part on it. So here is Ben in half of his costume about to knock on the first door...

By the third house, he had it down. When they would tell him to grab some candy, he stuck his hand in the bowl and grabbed as much as his little hand would hold...

We only made it to six houses or so but Ben still enjoyed himself. Walking back to the car while he checked out all of his candy. He actually ended up getting quite a bit of it in the few houses we went to. Dad has been enjoying it all week...

The pumpkin patch... A little late

Unfortunately, my camera battery died about 5 minutes after we got there so I didn't get too many pictures. I also didn't get any pictures of him looking at me, smiling. Here are some of the pictures that I did get...

I'm getting there...

I know it's been awhile since I've added a new post and pictures and some of you have even mentioned to me to get a move on it. I will, I will... soon. After a week and a half of being gone, we are finally getting back settled at home, only to have to get ready to move again soon. Thankfully, we will soon be moving to a house and as long as everything goes smoothly with the house we are interested in renting, we should be moving next week. We are very much looking forward to having more room and to not have neighbors below us, above us and next to us. Our goal is to be all moved in and organized before the holidays start. Once Thanksgiving comes, it will continue to get busy for us. We will be spending Thanksgiving in Fresno. Two weeks later is Ben's 2nd Birthday. Two weeks after that is Christmas which we will hopefully be spending down south (as long as the doctor says I am good to travel). I am hoping to get some downtime in January and February as we await baby Jack's arrival which will be no later than the end of March. It seems like a long way away, but I know it will come quickly and we will be meeting our little guy before we know it (hopefully not too soon though. So far, everything is still looking good).

I hope everyone got off to a good start for November and that you are getting used to the time change. We sure enjoyed our extra hour of sleep the other night.

Under the boardwalk, we'll be having some fun...

Yesterday, we took a drive from Monterey up to Santa Cruz. Drew and his family used to spend two weeks at the beach near Santa Cruz every summer. I have heard a lot about the memories Drew has of his time there and we were excited to take Ben there. We headed over to the boardwalk and I think the inner kid in Drew started to come out. We weren't there too long but long enough for Ben to play a few games and to enjoy a snack.

It was pretty crowded there and Ben was checking everyone out

He was really getting into this game

This was his expression when looking into the fun house mirrors. He thought it was funny.

My attempts at taking a picture of the three of us. Kind of hard to do with a big bulky camera.

Playing more games

While dad enjoyed his corn dog, Ben and I shared an ice cream. Unfortunately, a lot of it ended up on Dad's lap.

Oh fudge!

Drew got some rocky road fudge while we are on fisherman's wharf Thursday evening. Friday night, when we got back to the hotel after dinner, he decided to share some of it with Ben. I think these pictures give you a good idea of what it was like to watch Ben eat the fudge.

Why so serious?

We just got back a bit ago from our trip to Monterey. Drew had to be there for a conference starting last Wednesday. Ben and I headed down there on Thursday and met up with him. Overall, we had a very good time and only had a few meltdowns (which isn't too bad for a 22 month old while on vacation). Drew spent the mornings in meetings but was free to spend the afternoons and evenings with Ben and I. Friday afternoon, we went to the aquarium. Ben was very serious almost the whole time we were there, just taking it all in. He was enthralled with it all. You will see it in a lot of these pictures. Don't worry though, they aren't all serious and you will see some smiles towards the end.